Ski

Washo can still, technically, appeal. It will cost the taxpapyers a lot of money, but he's shown he likes to spend it. Sno Mountain will certainly continue their own lawsuit for defamation against Washo until he concedes. The fact that Washo sued didn't cause the lawsuit, so the delays are just a product of politics and egos. But Washo called it a back room, illegal deal and thus accused the parties of being criminals. So they'll let that hang over his head. The main upgrade set for this season has been the installation of all the snow guns. Barring another holdup, it should happen on time. Their intent is to have lots of SNO and hype the hell out of it. You're talking to beaten down people used to being told we should be grateful to get three new garbage cans and a dozen lift seat chairs fixed. We don't experience lines anywhere in the hill, so we just want snow and a faster chair. They can keep their hot dogs and Cokes. And I think it's a little like the extra $100 you could pay to park right next to the lift. That would have worked if you couldn't park pretty much right next to the lift anyway. Don't get me wrong, we really do want everything...but just don't spend lift money on cool new goofy stuff.

Washo

I'm going to steal it and hold it ransom for a high speed quad.

Listen, you eeediot....whatever you do...do....not...push....this....button...

Stimpy?

The dismissal led the 11pm news on WBRE-TV!!! Woo Hoo! It is 100% OFFICIAL!!!! "We're now going to rush to the closing, which will happen this week and the money will just pour into the county as well as the mountain," Commissioner Cordaro.

Nick: no matter how it went down, thanks for the positive vibe. I still haven't read a consession speech in the Times-Tribune, those f*ckers.

And, uh, luckily nobody from the mountain would ever be on a ski/ride message board. But I don't have a problem with someone squeezing one more year out of a junior pass. Screw it, I think it sucks what they charge little kids---they'd build some repeat business if they didn't overcharge 6 yr olds and all the kids that might just try it for the first time---like all of Ty's friends. At least they won't make us go to a freaking ticket window to "validate" our passes like at JF/BB...

More info has been added to the website, including season pass prices: http://www.snomtn.com/seasonpasses/ For our family of three it's $1289, which is up from $1050 last season...that's the biggest season price increase I've ever seen a ski area make, but they apparently just matched CB. It's still lower than Elk and the same three passes at Blue are $1413.

Hehehehehe... The Yanks outbid the Mets. It's awesome 'cause the Major Leaguers do their rehabs mostly at Triple A, so there will be games with the regular Yankees playing. When we lived in Trenton, the Red Sox owned the Trenton Thunder franchise and we watched a few games with Nomar... Speicher is being sued: 41. As alleged above, Defendant Speicher has taken purposeful actions which were specifically intended to harm the existing contractual relationship between Lackawanna County and Sno Mountain. 42. Defendant Speicher is not privileged or justified in engaging in the aforesaid purposeful actions with respect to Sno Mountain. 43. Defendant Speicher's actions were willful and deliberate. Defendant Speicher's actions are obviously motivated by a desire to obtain Montage Ski Area for himself on terms less advantageous than those offered by Sno Mountain. 44. Plaintiffs Sno Mountain and Denis Carlson have suffered actual legal damage as a direct and proximate result of Defendant Speicher's actions as alleged above exceed the sum of $50,000 and are continuing in nature. 45. Plaintiffs are entitled to recover an award of punitive or exemplary damages as a result of defendant Speicher's outrageous conduct and to punish and deter such conduct. WHEREFORE, plaintiff, Sno Mountain LLC, demands judgment in its favor and against defendant Christopher J. Speicher and request an award of compensatory damages in excess of the jurisdictional amount of Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00), plus interest and costs, and further requests an award of punitive damages, together with whatever other relief is deemed appropriate by the Court. *** Buuuuut...Sno Mountain LLC doesn't want to sue anybody. That's the last freaking thing they want to do. They are just trying to build something and make it a success. Any business person will tell you that suing parties brings shitty karma (although they'd phrase it differently). They just want the bullshit to end. I think that's fair enough.

IDK, xNick, I can't see how he'd know something the judge hasn't ruled on.

You don't have two ex-wives. riderossi: I agree, for the most part. If you went back over old posts you'd see that I was against the original sale. But the push for a 10 year guarantee at doing everything reasonably possible to remain open is a big deal. Also, if you hang on the North Face, all the plastic stuff will be invisible; like parking at Glen Lodge and skiing Cliffy at CB. And the snowmaking issue became huge this year. They simply don't have the money to fix the pipes on skier's right and of the 53 guns, only 26 are currently operational. It started to really feel like Montage was one vote away from being shut down. Look at how easily they decided to shut down the North Face if the sale doesn't go through? As if it's no big deal; just being fiscally responsible. The Lackawanna County commissioners have never understood...

Sno is correct about what was actually open, but your impression is shared by most people. And when you're trying to sell lift tickets, it's more about the customer's impression than it is about reality. For instance, Montage had far and away more expert terrain open than Bear Creek on any day this winter...but they had the hype going. So on the one hand, we get to enjoy empty slopes with grooming machine marks days after it's groomed, but now we're left hoping we're even open at all. But no worries. This will all work out.

Final briefs are due in the Bucks County Courthouse by Monday. It sounds like the decision should be made by next Friday. Judges love to hand down decisions on Fridays. The only weird thing about the article is the spin put on the last sentence. The judge said hundreds of things, but the writer ended his story with what is a typical statement saying,

CB's a little further than Elk, but I work either in Stroudsburg or drive past CB on my way to and from schools in A.B.E. almost every day... It's probably a good choice. But I'd be sorta sad skiing there without Kat around. I hope I don't have to make the choice.

Yeah, well we gave up a lot financially to allow my kids to ski every day. But, hey, you have a garage full of Hummers. Whatever rocks yer world.

Exactly. You can create a poll that would give results making Osama bin Laden more popular in America than Tiger Woods. And mags even dig the negative buzz, because buzz is buzz. I really don't think the editors need or want 'fixed' results...there's way too much employee turnover to risk the embarassment.

I'd be happy to spend a winter fighting for space at Blue, but the 60+ miles each way is a killer. I'm not too worried about the sale not happening...I give it a 90% chance of getting the judge's approval. And, Senor, a ski area that opens at Noon is ideal...mornings are cold and stupid and filled with people I don't know or like very much.

Man, there's no easy answer... I really wish I'd checked out Big Bear last season...TWood just isn't that much bigger than The Hideout, so that's out...I suppose we'd buy Elk passes. I've had Elk passes twice and never made them worthwhile.

All the lawyers and parties are in court today, with what should be the final hurdle for the sale...the judge could make a decision today, but most likely will take up to 14 days to submit a written decision. On the upside, Sno Mountain LLC has said they'd need about 10 weeks for delivery and installation of the 183 new snowguns, which means a tight work schedule could get them in on time if the judge doesn't screw around. The downside is that if the sale doesn't go through and the county operates Montage this winter, The North Face will likely not open. I know our family won't be spending over $1000 on family passes to ski greens and blues...and they'll have trouble staffing ski instructors. And the county hasn't even put in the $30,000 order for pamphlets that would become obsolete with a sale, which is understandable. Montage would be a ghost town this winter, if Washo gets his way. It would be even less attractive to any prospective buyers if it cuts it's skier visits even further by closing it's diamonds all year. As they say, it's always darkest before the dawn.

One of the biggest flamer retards of all time, second only to SnowSnow. He was an MC local that loved to hate on PA, as well as everyone else at MC. He even ended up on the Hunter board giving the folks up their crap...his name there was Hunterislaughable. He claimed to work at MC and if any of the other's figured out who he was, they'd have beaten the crap out of him. He would regularly tell people they sucked and should have seen him doing 900's, or whatever. He just had the need to be NOTICED.

I don't have any ties to the race team, other than being friends with coaches and I have a future racer. I wonder if there's one mountain anywhere whose race team doesn't have the rep of being arrogant? No offense taken: if I were coaching right now, I'd tell my kids they could be cocky and stuck up---the day after they won the state championship. But, anyway, I suppose a lot of the permanent changes can't really be made until next season, after the tubing park is moved. It would be nice if they could be talking more about plans rather than f*cking lawsuits.

This is actually a negative, but something you might encounter when making one of your requests: I'm hoping they eventually use what's now the tubing park area for a beginner park. For one thing, Switch ends up with a narrow alley between jumps and the roped off NASTAR arena...plus, they don't have to bother roping off for NASTAR (just a big sign and some rope at the top keeping skiers to the left) if there's no park features. Also, we're hoping the start house gets moved up to the top of the headwall about 100 yards above were it is now. Maybe you guys have seen them set single pole slalom gates from up there for practice. I'm sure the race coaches are lobbying for it, especially since the USSA program is geared toward really young kids and they don't take them down to Boomer. Just some two cents...

That they suddenly have some money to spend is a good sign. The mountain will be open no matter what. It's just a case of what name it will have and just how much money will be available for upgrades. BTW, Sno, when do you think Spur will stop being a named trail?

There's undeveloped property just about everywhere you go---and some, like Montage, is chartered NOT to be developed. I guess it's hard for some people to imagine... Glad to hear you can afford a ski area that doesn't have hair on it, Rob. Let's hear some storeis about the $40 million burning a hole in your pocket. The more I got sucked into helping at our ski hill, the less I skied.